A Legend Begins
by Cira Stones
Summary: Exploring the outskirts of the city one day, Chiro comes across a giant metal robot. He didn't know that when he entered it and accidentally woke the sleeping Monkey Team inside, just how much his life would change or that he would gain an irreplaceable family.
1. Chapter 1

Yes, I have rewritten the first chapter. Why? Well, the first version really hadn't that well written and so I felt maybe I would get more reviews if I rewrote it. Anyway, I hope everyone likes this version a lot better then the first. Also, the second chapter should be posted in three or fours day, depending on how much time I make for writing.

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_Clouds slowly rolled across the sky, big patches blocking out the moonlight as they drifted by below. As a particularly large cloud slowly moved to reveal the moon once again, the light fall upon a young boy lying in the woods below. __Slowly, a twelve year boy opened his eyes, suddenly aware that he wasn't in his room anymore. Sitting up, he looked around him but couldn't recognize where he was. Underneath him was soft grass and when he looked up to the sky, he could the stars and ranger seven high above him. But when he looked straight ahead, he couldn't see very far at all. He could trees, but everything beyond them faded to black. He couldn't see past the first row of trees._

_"Hello?" asked Chiro, standing up. "Is there anybody else out here?"_

_The wind picked up, ruffling the leaves of the trees and plants that he couldn't see. He was about to call out again when the ground started shacking. "Wha-at?" The ground started shacking even more and Chiro fall back down to the ground, unable to keep his balance. The sound of something crashing against the trees and the ground as it struggled to move filled the area. The shacking quickly started to stop. Chiro closed his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief._

_Suddenly feeling as though he was being watched, he opened his eyes and realized that he was now sitting in the shadow of something. Wiping his head around to see behind him, Chiro looked up the silhouette of some huge creature. Or human? He couldn't really tell, it was shaped somewhat like a human, but no human could be that large and bulky._

_Suddenly Chiro was blinded by red light. It must have opened it's eyes because suddenly, as though someone had flipped on two giant headlights, Chiro was staring right into two the eyeballs of the giant creature._

_Slowly it raised one of it's hands and started to reach out to him. Taking a step forward, the ground shock once again under it's weight. Chiro felt terrified, but he couldn't move._

Chiro was awoken from his dream from shock of suddenly being doused in ice cold water.

"Hey!" He sat up, water dripping from his face and hair. He barely saw the top his antagonizer's head before he ducked out of sight to the bottom bunk. A surprised yelp told him that his roommate, Ethan, had also just gotten soaked. Laughing, the boy that had woken them ran to the door.

"Morning, losers!" He said while making rude gestures at them. He ran out of the door and down the hall; all the while still laughing.

Chiro groaned and fall backwards onto his pillow, not caring that it was now wet. "Time?" He asked. Ethan leaned over to pick up the clock that had been knocked to the floor. "5:32." He said.

"Seriously?!" asked Chiro. "Damn Trent." He sighed, deciding that he might as well get up.

Trent was one of the worst people Chiro had ever had the pleasure of meeting. He was the resident bully, passing time by making everyone else miserable with endless number of ways. The only thing that was worse was that he got away with his stupid pranks most of the time. Miss Allaway, the orphanage director, was usually too busy to do anything more then tell Trent off before something else took her attention away.

"You think he would get tired of getting up at odd hours in the morning just to throw water on us." mumbled Ethan through his pillow. Chiro sat up and stretched before hanging his legs over the side of the bed. He jumping down to the floor and walked over to the dresser. As he started pulling a pairs of jeans out of the drawer, his roommate spoke up again. "Don't tell me you're getting up? Now that Trent has gotten his early morning dose of messing with us, he should leave us alone." He stopped to think. "Well, at least till breakfast, anyway."

"Yeah, but I don't think I'll be able to get back to sleep now." said Chiro, pulling up his jeans and pulling a red sweater out of the drawer next. He hadn't told anyone yet, but every time he had that dream, he would wake up feeling restless and apprehensive; as though there was something important he was suppose to be doing. Kind of like when he ignored his homework till the night before it was due, leaving him to worry over whether or not if he'll get it done it time as he rushed through it.

His roommate sat up. "I know you haven't been sleeping well lately, but you really should at least try." He said, turn his pillow over and patted it, making sure the water hadn't seeped through to the other side.

"I think I'll go for a walk." said Chiro, ignoring his roommate's last statement. Perhaps he should be happy that his roommate was showing some concern for his well-being, instead of being irritated by it. Ethan usually kept to himself, never getting involved or showing much interest in others. The fact that he actually spoke to someone on a daily basis outside of what was necessary was rare. It seemed to mean Chiro had been accepted as a friend or something. "Wanna come with me?" asked Chiro.

He heard the bed creak as his roommate rolled over and half his head disappeared underneath some new, dry covers. "Not unless you're heading to the arcade."

"Nope."

"Good, because it doesn't open for another three hours." Chiro chuckled. He finished tying his shoe laces and grabbed his backpack. Just as he reached the door, his roommate said one last thing.

"I suppose that as the good roommate that I am, I should ask where you're going at this hour?" Chiro smiled, because he suspected that Ethan probably already had an idea to where he was going.

"The outskirts of the city." Replied Chiro. The outskirts of the city was a place that was usually avoided by the citizens of Shuggazoom, as most considered it dangerous. For a few miles, the land was grassy with large rocks and trees and bushes. After that, the vast and lifeless barren desert began. Actually quiet peaceful. The reason that people considered it 'dangerous' due to the fact that some strange alien like creatures lived out there. No one knew where they had come from or how they would react to a human. Children and teens sometimes dared each other to go in, but no one ever ventured all that far out; which was exactly what Chiro had taken to doing lately. No one knew, except maybe Ethan. Chiro could only imagine what would happen if anyone else ever found out, but it would no doubt include him having to listen to a _very_ long lecture about being safe and then being grounded till he was eighteen. "If anyone asks where I am, I'm at the park or something."

"Alright. Have fun." mumbled Ethan, already half asleep. Chiro opened and closed the door quietly, so as to not bother his roommate or alert anyone else in the orphanage that he was leaving.

The sun hadn't even begun to rise yet as Chiro hit the street. There wasn't even anyone else up yet, except for a few cars that came down the road every once and awhile or the occasional other early riser also walking the streets. Chiro didn't actually like waking up so early in the morning; he loved sleeping in till noon as much as every other kid in Shuggazoom did. But he could never deny that he enjoyed the early morning hours. Everything was clam, quiet, and mostly lifeless. Which meant he could wander around more freely. Once everyone started getting up, it was hard to reach the outskirts unnoticed.

Chiro turned the corner at the bakery and continued walking. He was heading for the train station, which ran twenty-four hours straight every day. Around most of the city, the city limits almost immediately turned to either water or desert. There was only a small part that faded out to grassy fields, which was somewhat unsurprisingly located on the end of the city that had least amount of people. Of course, one third of the buildings there were abandoned and over half were in poor or dangerous condition. Since Chiro currently lived on the other side of the city, he had to take the train. It was fast, cheap, and always running. He paid for his ticket, the women at the booth hardly even glancing at him as he handed her the money through the slot. He didn't have to wait long before the train arrived and when he got on, it was completely empty. The trip across town took about half an hour. Only one other person got on during that time, and she had gotten off by the time Chiro got to his stop. He stood up as soon as the train reached his stop. Getting off and out of the station, he quickly made his way to the street. He moved quickly through the buildings to the outskirts. As much as he liked adventure, Chiro knew that sticking around here at five thirty in the morning was asking for trouble. Some of the people that lived here wouldn't think twice about robbing or even seriously harming him, even if he was just a kid. Once he made it past the last building, he started down an unfinished road that slowly transformed into dirt and weeds.

He breathed a sigh of relief. Adjusting his backpack, Chiro marched onward. He could feel the excitement rushing through his veins. Today he was going to head further into the outskirts then he ever had before, maybe even make all the way to the edge of the desert. No one had been out that far for decades.

Chiro smiled, not knowing just how much his little adventure into the outskirts of the city would change his life.

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End of chapter one! Please R&amp;R.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two is here. Have fun reading and remember, reviews are best way to make sure you get another chapter.

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The first half mile of Chiro's trek into the outskirts was mostly just dirt and weeds, with grass and bushes quickly taking over in the next half. It was here that most people stopped, as evident by a couple of thrown away cans and candy wrappers.

It took an hour's hike to reach the edge of his usual boundary. About a mile inHe smiled. He usually didn't have time to go this far before he had to had back to the orphanage if he wanted to make it in time for roll call and stay out of trouble. Right about here was where all the plant life started growing in larger numbers and was where the most of the strange creatures that everyone worried about lived. The shrubbery and trees were thicker here, though hardly what one would call a forest or even woods. Small hills and large rocks were scattered around the area.

Chiro picked up his pace, feeling even more excited then before.

But the further Chiro walked, the more strange things started to look. New kinds of trees he hadn't ever seen before started appearing. They looked almost the same as the ones in the city, except these ones had large, red pieces of fruit growing from the branches. Some of the fruit was bigger then his head.

"That's weird." mumbled Chiro, walking up to one of the trees. He felt the bark and examined some fallen leaves. It really didn't look like any he had ever seen before. He half thought about plucking one the pieces of fruit off the tree and trying it, but decided against it. Who knew what it might taste like?

He continued walking, watching blue and green birds fly from one red fruit tree to another. The tree were growing so close together that it was impossible to get through them. Walking around them till he spotted a break in the trees up ahead, he sprinted towards. Still watching the birds in the trees though, he almost walked into a giant metal, moss covered wall.

"What the?" Said Chiro in shock.

As Chiro's eyes continued upwards, he realized that the wall was actually a part of a giant metal body. Chiro stepped backwards, still looking up at the metal giant. It was shaped like a human, one made of metal blocks and cylinders. It must have been taller then most of the buildings in the city, how could he have not seen it before? How come no one in the city had seen it? Something that big would have to be miles out into the desert to not be spotted from just the people on the ground in the city, not to mention the people in the sky scrappers. The giant was standing at full height, looking straight out at the city. It didn't even have a shadow. Suddenly, Chiro felt as though he was being watched. Chiro stepped back again. Suddenly he felt slightly nausea and his eye became unfocused. Shaking his head and closing his eyes for a moment, he felt better, only to feel freaked out again when he opened them. The metal giant was gone. Instead of the metal wall that had only been a yard away from him a moment before was a boulder partly way into the ground surrounded by more of the red fruit trees, only these one had even thicker trunks and were even more closely packed together. He stared at the boulder, wondering if he had really seen the foot of a metal giant there.

Stepping forward, he felt the wave of nausea come again, and when his eyes refocused, the metal giant was back. It seemed he had to be really close to see it.

Chiro didn't understand what he was seeing. What was this thing? And why was it even out . Curiosity overpowering his fear, Chiro moved closer to the wall. He put up his hand when he was only a foot from it. He hesitated, the foot alone was probably two or three yards taller than him after all, but it didn't look like it would be moving any time soon. Touching the foot, Chiro found that the metal was surprisingly warm. But Chiro didn't get the chance to notice anything else. There was a sudden clunking sound from inside. Jumping back, Chiro watched as a large panel opened at the top and began lowering to the ground. Chiro quickly turned and ran well more then a yard away from it, but the nausea didn't come back. Slowly the door lowered to the ground. Once it hit the ground, everything became still again. Chiro stood, back against some of the trees, watching. He half expected alien creatures to come marching out or for more doors to start opening, but everything was still. Chiro walked closer, trying to see inside. It certainly looked empty.

After a moment of fierce debating with himself inside his head, he crept inside, slowly looking around. But there wasn't much to see though. There wasn't a ceiling, the room just continued upwards into the dark. It was impossible to see how high it went. Next to the door was a panel with buttons and a picture of the robot riddled with tiny dots, mostly on it's torso. But there were six dots almost twice of the size of all the others on both the hands, feet, the head and in the middle of the torso.

"I wonder how this works?" Said Chiro, examining the panel and touching one of the dots near the bottom of the torso.

Suddenly lights in the wall turned on, lighting the room in a blue glow. The door began to close.

"What?"

Before Chiro could even move the door snapped shut and several little clicks sounded as it locked.

"Wait! Open up." Said Chiro pounding on the door. The floor jerked violently, causing Chiro to lose balance and fall backwards. The elevator began moving, quickly gaining speed as it traveled up the leg. The elevator rose so fast that Chiro felt sure it would crash against the top of the elevator shaft before it could ever stop. But as quickly as it had gained speed it began slowing down, coming to a somewhat rough stop. Feeling a bit shaky, Chiro breathed a sigh of relief and stood up. Behind him, a new door opened. Or at least it did somewhat. It jammed halfway open and after trying to unstick itself a few times, it seemed to give up. Obviously, there wasn't much power in this place, nor was it in good condition. Not wanting to remain in the elevator in case it suddenly dropped or something, Chiro pushed the doors open the rest of the way and in stepped out into a hallway. Lights on the ceiling light up, but just barely. The light was dim and some flickered as they attempted to stay on. Some didn't come on at all. Chiro was starting to wonder just how much power was left in this place. It was almost as if the robot itself was struggling to find power to work even those few functions.

Looking down the hall, curiosity started overcoming his sense of fear once again. There were doors all down the hall both ways. Many of them open. Heading towards the door closest to him, Chiro looked inside. It was empty. Just some cupboards and a table with no chairs. Searching the others, Chiro found most of them were bare. The only thing he did find was tons of dust. There was so much of it that he was leaving faint footprints as he walked.

_"Who would abandon such a cool place?" _Thought Chiro as he continued his search. Or maybe a better question was who could have built it. It wasn't anything else like on Shuggazoom, that was for sure.

Chiro wandered around for what felt like hours. Some of the rooms deeper in were much interesting the bare ones he had found first, including what he assumed was medical center, a lab, several bedrooms, a room with six giant pillars and the command center. It was by far the largest room with a huge TV screen as tall as a house and a control panel several meters long ran along the bottom in it. There was also with five large chairs in a circle surrounding a sixth one, each one a different color. Chiro thought that room was the coolest out of all of the rooms he had seen yet. Chiro had just sat down in one of the big chairs, the orange one in the middle, which turned out to be very comfy, when he noticed six large cylinders in a row against the back wall. They were all a different color too, just like the chairs. Walking up to them, Chiro quickly realized what they were. They were elevators, like the one he had came in, only they were all smaller verison. They were big enough for a single person, maybe even two.

Chiro stepped inside blue tube, but there wasn't a panel or anything to turn it on. After a moment of standing there, Chiro was about to get out when he was suddenly sucked up through the tude. Chiro barely had time to register going through the dark blue tunnel he landed back down, his legs buckling under from the sudden drop.

"Oww. That hurt." Mumbled Chiro, rubbing his leg to try and ease the pain.

Chiro pulled off his backpack and groaned, looking at dangle from his hand by only one strap. The other had snapped at the top where it had originally been stitched to the rest of the bag. "Great, a strap broke." He pulled it back on, letting his left should carry the wait. "This will be fun to explain when I get back." But it was at that moment that Chiro realized he wasn't in the same room anymore. He was now in a long, dark hallway. Two long, seemingly never ending fluorescent lights ran in the two corners of the hall, but they barely glowed. They casted just enough light for Chiro to tell that he was in a hallway, but at the same time gave Chiro an ominous feeling as though he had just stepped into some forbidden place. Walking out of the lift, Chiro noticed it was no longer blue, but now just the unpainted grey of the metal that it was made from. Non of the other tubes were there either.

"Now where am I?" Chiro asked out loud. He half expected some evil sounding laugh to respond to him, like in a horror movie, but everything was silent. Except for a soft humming sound. "This that...a machine?" It was coming from his right. Chiro started following the sound, though honestly he didn't have much of a choice. All of the hallway to the left of the grey tube was in complete darkness and Chiro had seen enough movie and read enough comics to know to not just wander into the darkness.

As Chiro walked, the soft humming slowly became louder until after ten minutes, he came upon a single door at the end of the hallway. In fact, it was the only door he had seen at all in this hallway. Slowly he opened the door and looked inside. At first, the room seemed really small. All Chiro could see in the dim light of the room was some more control stations, against the back walk and turned sharply to form an L shape. Walking into the room, Chiro noticed that was actually a metal walkway decking and right next to the doorway was a staircase leading down to a lower level. Because of the door, Chiro hadn't seen the stairway when he first looked inside. The lower level held five large glass chambers and multiple cables and cords running all over the floor to different places in the surrounding walls and to the bases of the glass chambers. But as Chiro stared at the glass chambers, full of strange colored liquids and bubbles gently floating up from the bases, he froze.

Each of the five chambers had a creature floating inside. All were a different color too: yellow, black, blue, green, and red. Just like the chairs and the tubes.

"What...is this?" Asked Chiro, dropping his backpack to the floor. Slowly he walked up to the closest chamber, which held the black colored creature. "Are you..._alive_ in there?" Chiro asked, tapping the glass gently. There was no response from the creature inside as it continued to bob up and down. As Chiro continued observing the creatures, he noticed that they all had a long tail. _"They're monkeys."_ Concluded Chiro. _"Metal monkeys. But I'm pretty sure Shuggazoom never had animals like that."_ Chiro examined each chamber carefully, trying to figure what they were exactly and why they were in the chambers. But it was hard to tell if the monkeys were alive or not. They didn't move or seem aware of anything, yet at the same time, there was something about them that kept Chiro thinking that maybe they were alive somehow. _"Maybe they're in suspended animation or something?"_ Thought Chiro. But it seemed highly unlikely that they were alive, no matter what signs of life Chiro thought he saw. After all, considering the condition of everything, nothing in this place had been touched for at least a decade, maybe even two.

After a while, Chiro stopped looking at the monkey and went back up to the controller stations.

"I wonder if anything still works."

Wiping away some the dust, Chiro read what labels he could make out. "Lets see, system reboot, system check, current chamber status, security monitors..."

Chiro wiped away the dust under a large lever, which was the only one like it on any of the stations. "Let's see...Begin...something...man, I can't make out the rest of it." Dust had gotten under the thin layer of glass covering the label. Besides the very first word, Begin, all Chiro could make out was the last letter of the last word: s. Curiosity getting the better of him, Chiro grasped the lever and pulled it back. There was a flash of green light so bright that that was all Chiro could see. For a few seconds, there was an intense feeling of pain and energy that filled Chiro's entire body. He collapsed, falling to the ground unconscious. The sudden surge of power short circuited the lights and the room went dark, the only light coming from the stasis chambers.

While Chiro laid on the floor unconscious, the five monkeys were slowly beginning to awaken.

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Chapter two is finish, and man is it long. Even longer then the first! Though hopefully not too long. Chapter three should be coming out shortly.


	3. Chapter 3

Here is chapter three. Originally I was just going to post this without editing first because I finished this pretty late and just wanted to go to bed, but I decided against that. Luckily for me I didn't post because I found a lot of errors. Enjoy reading.

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For almost an hour, Chiro didn't move or make any sound, trapped in a dreamless sleep. But slowly he started to regain consciousness. At first when he opened his eyes, he didn't recognize where he was because it was so dark, but he knew he wasn't in his bed back at the orphanage. The floor was hard and cold - not at all comfortable. Pushing himself into a sitting position, Chiro looked around the dark room.

Almost at once did he remember where he was, and suddenly Chiro started to panic after realizing he had no idea how long he had been wandering around inside the robot, much less how long he had been unconscious.

"I gotta go!" He said, standing and stumbling to the door. He ran down the hall and the door softly closed behind him. Had he stayed even a moment longer, perhaps he would have realized that the stasis chambers the monkeys were in were now running with more power and that they're residents were showing lots more signs of life. They're tails were moving and occasionally the their arms or legs twitched.

When Chiro got back to the tube he had came to the hallway through, he found it wouldn't work. Luckily, going further down the hallway in the other direction, Chiro found a stairwell going upwards. It seemed to take him forever to climb but when he finally reached the end, the door was a little odd. It blended into the wall so well Chiro thought for a moment he had reached a dead end. Pushing against the wall, it moved outwards pretty easily. Once he got it opened all the way, Chiro found himself back in the same hallway as before. The door started to close behind him and when it fully closed, Chiro stared at the wall amazed. It blended in so well that if Chiro hadn't just come through there, he wouldn't have ever guess that that portion of the wall was actually a door. It was kind of strange to look down see his footprints in the dust looking as though they had appeared out of nowhere.

Following his foot steps in the dust, Chiro made it back to the elevator which, much to his surprise, worked better than it first had. But he didn't dwell on it much because once he got back outside, he saw that the sun had already began to set and was already half hidden by the horizon. "Oh man." Said Chiro, sprinting as fast as he could in the direction of home, "I'm going to get in so much trouble when I get back. There's no way I'll be able to explain why I'm so late."

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At the orphanage, Chiro's roommate Ethan, sat on his bunk, a comic book lying in front of him. While it might look to someone on the outside that he was just reading, Ethan's mind was actually preoccupied with something other than reading. Miss Allaway had just finished hounding him a few minutes ago about why Chiro was still gone. Earlier in the day when she had started questioning Chiro's disappearance, he had just been annoyed at being bothered. But now that the sun was setting and no one had seen Chiro all day, even he was starting to get a little worried. He stood up, the comic useless in distracting him left forgotten, and wandered over to the window. The sun was almost completely gone and if Chiro didn't show up soon...

Something red caught Ethan's eye and he turned to the street below. Chiro was running up the orphanage's doors, looking like he just ran a mile in two minutes.

"Hey! Chiro!" Yelled Ethan, just loud enough for Chiro to hear. Chiro turned to see Ethan half hanging out of their bedroom window and waving at him. Ducking into the alley, Chiro stopped just under the window. "What have you been doing all day? Miss Allaway just got done interrogating me about where you've been."

"I'm in so much trouble, aren't I?" Asked Chiro, leaning against the brick wall of another building.

"You can thank Trent for that." Replied Ethan. "When lunch time came and you didn't show up, he made an 'innocent' comment about it to Miss Allaway. I told her that you left early to get to the city library and that then you were planning on hanging out at the arcade for a bit. She brought it for awhile but now I'm pretty sure she knows I was lying." Ethan finished talking and disappearing into the room for a moment. When he came back, he held three books in his hand. "Here." he said, dropping them one at a time for Chiro to catch them.

"Thanks." Clutching the books in his arms, Chiro pushed open the front door. There didn't seem to be anyone there. He walked inside and closed the door, breathing a sigh of relief.

"And just where do you think you've been all day?" Chiro turned around and found Miss Allaway standing behind him, looking very unhappy. She sat down in a chair in a room on her left, indicating that Chiro do same in a chair directly across from her. Chiro groaned inside his head, hoping the next hour would go by quickly.

* * *

Inside the super robot, the hyperforce was waking. While at first the process had been slow, things were now moving quickly. The monitors turned on, lighting the room and several windows popped up, showing graphs and charts. Lights on the base of each of the chambers started flashing and beeping. Faster and faster and lights flashed and beeped until all five of the chambers suddenly burst. Like five mini explosions all happening at the same time, glass shot in every direction and water drenched the floor. The monkeys once in the chambers laid on the floor, still for a moment before one of them started moving, groaning a bit.

Sparx sat up, stretching his arms and tail. "Man, I feel like I've been asleep forever." He said.

Aside him, Nova stood up, also stretching. "I feel pretty refreshed actually." She said, offering a hand to help Gibson up. Otto jumped around, happy to be awake.

"I see we all woke up at the same, just as I had calculated." Said Gibson, heading for the monitors.

Antauri floated in the air. "Gibson, what is the condition of the robot?"

"It doesn't seem to have attack since we've been asleep. In fact, I'm finding any threat to the city."

"So the old bag of bones hasn't been back yet?" Asked Sparx.

"It would appear so." Answered Antuari, standing beside Gibson at the control station and watching the monitors.

Nova jumped up, standing next to Sparx and Otto. "But then why are we awake?" She asked, voicing everyone's thoughts. "I thought we were supposed to wake up when the robot detected the Skeleton King coming back."

"We were supposed to wake up then. But since I can't find any threat, there must have been a malfunction or something that started the awaking process. But so far all the systems are in prefect working order."

"That's good." Said Sparx.

"No it isn't." Said Gibson. Everyone looked at him, unsure if they had heard him correctly.

"There must be water logged in my ears," Said Sparx, lightly banging his hand against his head for effect. "Because I thought I just heard Gibson say that everything is working is a bad thing."

Otto pushed through and ran up the one of the other stations, rapidly pressing typing and pressing buttons. "It is a bad thing." He said, bring up more window with data.

"Would someone mind telling us why?" Asked Nova.

"It's a bad thing because someone has started up the robot." Answered Gibson. "Only the absolutely necessary systems, like the stasis chambers, should be working. But all systems have been online for over an hour. Which means that someone has been inside while we were asleep."

Everyone was silent for a moment, all confused and worried. "I thought you and Otto put up an advanced disguising system to keep anyone from finding this place." Said Antauri.

Gibson brought a new monitor and replied, "We did. But we've been asleep for much longer then we thought we would be and the robot is almost completely out of power. It's quickly failing." While Gibson explained, Otto noticed something dark blue lying on the floor in the corner. He walked over and stared at it.

"Um guys?" He said, but he was drowned out by Sparx.

"Is that why we woke up?" Asked Sparx. "Because the powers failing?"

"No. Who ever was in here seems to have had accidently started the awaking process manually."

Otto tried again. "Guys!" Everyone turned to Otto, looking slightly surprised.

"Yes Otto?" Said Antauri.

"I found this on the floor." He said, hold it up by the only non-broken strap. The team stared at the packback, now wet and punctured by glass shards. Gibson took the backpack from him, examining carefully it. "Well done, Otto!" He said. "This backpack probably belongs to our intruder." All the monkey crowded around to look at it.

"It looks like a kid's backpack." Observed Nova. "It's kind of small for an adult."

That made Sparx laugh a bit. "You know, that really says something about your guys' fancy defense system if a kid just waltzed in here with no problems."

Gibson glared at Sparx but didn't say anything. He unzipped the bag and reached took out what was inside. He pulled out a English book, a half finished math worksheet, a five dollar bill and twenty-six cents, a toy airplane, and a folded piece of paper.

"So it does belong to a child." Said Antauri, examining bag's contents. Sparx picked up the toy plane, admiring the great detail put into it. "And he's fan of jets." Said Sparx. "I think I could like this kid."

"Yes, he has fairly good math skills too." Noted Gibson, reading the math sheet. Gibson started mumbling off numbers and formulas, grading the homework sheet. Sparx held the toy above his head to look at it in the light saying something about what model of plane it was. Nova, Otto, and Antauri watched them unimpressed.

Nova sighed. "Poor kid. Had to attract those two." Otto nodded in agreement with her.

"Now I'm sure he would be happy to get their approval." Defended Antauri. "I think." Nova and Otto didn't look convinced.

"Anyway," Said Antauri loudly to get Gibson's and Sparx's attention. Realizing what they were doing, they quickly put down the toy and homework. "Is there anything that identifies the owner?"

"Oh..right.." Said Gibson, looking a bit sheepish. "Unfortunately he hasn't signed his homework. And nothing else in the bag carries a name either."

"Wait a minute." Said Sparx. "What does it matter if we know who the kid is? I mean, from the looks of things, he didn't do any damage."

"I agree with Sparx on this one." Said Nova. "It seems like a waste of time."

"I think it would be best if we found the owner as soon as possible." Answered Antauri. "I want to know how he got in the robot and how he knew where to find us. This room should have been completely hidden and possible to enter once we went into stasis. I would also like that the people of Shuggazoom remain unaware of us for a little while longer. The Skeleton King may have spies living in the city and I don't want him to know we're back yet."

Gibson started putting things back into the backpack. "The only problem now is how will we find him." He said, zipping the bag back up. "Kids lose backpacks everyday and without at least a name, I can't use Shuggazoom's data base to search for him."

"That shouldn't be too hard." Said Otto. The others looked at him a bit strangely. "He'll probably come back for his backpack." He said, pointing at the bag. "It has his homework and he'll need that for school."

"Gibson, what day is it?" Asked Antauri.

Gibson typed away at the computer, accessing a data base and searching through it. "Tuesday. But all the schools are closed for break. They re-open the week after next."

Antauri sighed. "Hopefully he'll come back before then. Otto, can you prepare something that could help us communicate?...Otto?"

They looked around, not seeing him anywhere. Suddenly he popped up from behind a control station, holding a screw driver and covered with oil. "I'll see what I can do."

"Well then, everyone start your duties. The faster we can prepare the robot, the better." Everyone nodded and started leaving to begin work. But Antauri hung behind, looking at the stasis chambers. He was lost in thought until a voice broke him out of it.

"You are a good leader, Antauri."

It was Nova, standing alone in the doorway. Everyone else must have left already.

"I know that all of you think so. But some times...I'm not so sure."

Nova walked up to him and with a little hesitation, gave him a hug. "You've been doing a great job since Mandarin left." She said. "And besides, who else could lead us?" Antauri returned the hug. It gave him comfort, knowing he had everyone's support.

"But the fact remains, we need a new leader." Said Antauri, breaking the hug and heading for the door.

"Antauri."

He left, leaving Nova alone in the room. She sighed.

"So he's still not gonna make it official?" Asked a new voice. Sparxs reappeared in the doorway, leaning against it.

"No." She answered. "He still thinks that there's a better leader somewhere out there." She walked up to Sparx, looking clearly concerned. "What are we going to do, Sparx? I'm starting to think that replacing Mandarin is a lost cause."

"I'm sure it's not." Said Sparx. "Eventually Antauri will either find this new leader or accept _being_ our new leader. He knows as well as we do that we can't stay like this forever."

They began walking down the hall, heading towards the staircase. "I hope you're right." Said Nova quietly.

* * *

Well, this chapter is done. I honestly had a very hard time with the last little bit. I knew what I wanted to do, but I had so much trouble trying to figure out how to present it. Not completely happy with how it turned out but at least it's better then what I first wrote. Anyway, Chiro will finally meet the monkey team in the next chapter. Which is a good thing too because life at the orphanage is about to go downhill really fast.


End file.
